'Sobering and inspiring': Hillary Clinton's high-school classmates react to her clinching the nomination

Anita Rifkind wrote a note to her well-known high-school
classmate, Hillary Clinton, right after her husband, Bill, was
elected president in 1992.

"None of us are surprised to see you in the White House,"
Rifkind wrote. "We're just surprised you had to bring that guy
with you."

Last week, it became clearer than ever before that
Rifkind's note could prove to be more than witty prose. Clinton,
in her second attempt at the presidency, became the presumptive
Democratic nominee after resounding wins in California and New
Jersey, among other states, to close out the primary
season.

In the process, she became the first woman to ever clinch a
major party's presidential nomination — a feat that
less than half of registered voters
consider historic, according to a recent Morning Consult
poll.

But for some who have known Clinton the longest
— classmates who were fellow members of the
first graduating class of Maine South High School in Park
Ridge, Illinois, in 1965 — the moment wasn't just
historic. It was powerful.

Maine South classmate Cheryl Harbour told Business
Insider:

Well, I have to admit that I felt stronger emotion than I
expected to. And really, my relationship with her exceeds
politics. But when that happened, I had a tremendous feeling of
history changing directions. It was such a profound day. Knowing
her, I am proud of her for being the person that could make that
happen.

This to me seems like an extension of who she was then and
what every moment of her life has been. It's not as if it was a
huge leap. I feel like the person that we see today is the person
that I first got to know in first grade. ... I can still see the
influences of Park Ridge in her.

Clinton in high school.Classmates.

Rifkind, who first met Clinton in junior high, said that
she was "thrilled" by Clinton outlasting Sen. Bernie Sanders and
securing the Democratic nomination. She told Business Insider
that she felt that Clinton "should've gotten it" over then
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in 2008, when she first ran.

Admittedly not a close friend of Clinton's, Rifkind called
herself a "D-list" connection.

"She was much more popular than I was," she said, adding
that the general public isn't getting the proper perception of
her classmate.

"I look at the media coverage and I say this is not the
person I know," Rifkind said. "The person I know is warm. And
open. And friendly. And is as honest as you can be. The fact that
she doesn't come across that way in the media always puzzles
me."

Harbour, meanwhile, called Clinton "extremely
well-liked." She said that she knew Clinton mostly through
classes and their work on the student council, in which Clinton
was heavily involved.

More recently, Clinton wrote the forward for Harbour's book
on becoming a grandparent, "Good
to be Grand," soon after Chelsea Clinton became pregnant with
her first child in 2014.

"She was the first grandmother or grandmother-to-be to read
the book," Harbour said. "We were together one evening and I
half-jokingly said, 'You should write the foreword,' and she
said, 'I will.' And she did."

"Her friends love her because she remembers what's going on
in your family and asks about it," she continued. "I think she
has a great capacity for empathy."

REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Clinton's high-school classmates, like the electorate at
large, appear to exhibit a mix of jubilation — shown by Rifkind
and Harbour — and being apathetic or unenthusiastic about
the choice between Clinton and Trump.

John Apolinski, who said that he did not know Clinton well,
simply said, "I plan on voting" when asked who he was supporting
in the fall.

"We'll see what develops in the next few months," he
said.

"It's a very interesting dynamic that's going on in our
political system right now," he added. "It's incredibly
fascinating. It's almost like reality TV."

Clinton in high school.Classmates.

But Apolinski acknowledged the gravity of being classmates of the
first woman to clinch a major party's presidential bid.

"The fact that it's the first woman to be officially nominated,
which is a historic moment, that is phenomenal," he said. "And of
course, the fact that we both attended the same school, that's
nice."

For Harbour — who got to know a president once before
during the first Clinton administration — the moment of Clinton
becoming the presumptive nominee was "sobering and
inspiring."

She said:

When you know the president, you feel personally connected
to the hugeness of the responsibility. But it's also inspiring
because it means the rest of us need to take responsibility for
what more we can be and should be doing — and there's no
postponing it. No more waiting for "it" to happen.

By knowing Bill Clinton through Hillary, I was conditioned
to the idea of personally knowing a president. All presidents
have friends who know them as real people. But there is still a
tremendous sense of awe and pride that Hillary, my friend, is in
the center of this historic circumstance.